“You don’t need a whole lot, just use what you got…love, love, love, just a little bit of love”.
It was a catchy little song the children’s pastor would sing with us when I was a little girl. Sans hand motions, it’s been running through my head the past few days. I have been praying for love to be the highest priority in my life. I want to have the type of love that trumps all fear of failure, criticism, shame, and hopelessness. I want to know that, “No matter what, I am the beloved of God” (Henri Nouwen), and to share that reality with as many people as possible. I want to be so consistently full of God’s love for me that I can’t help but share his kindness on the people around me. I want to live in a way that passes out the knowledge and experience of the love of God in practical ways. I badly want for people around me to feel loved when they are around me. I want to be part of the voice that says “you ARE lovable”. If God can love you, I can love you too. And God certainly does love you!
It’s a funny thing when you start asking God to teach you how to love. You quickly become aware of all the ways you so don’t know how to love. If I want to change the world with love, I must first be changed by love. Sometimes, it’s really intimidating and overwhelming to decide to love others well and do good to them always. Loving when it’s convenient is often our fallback because the alternatives—altruistic as they may be—simply seem impractical and impossible much of the time. And quite frankly, they are. It’s impossible to love others perfectly when I depend on my own resources. Depressing. Happily, God is love, and he is also a good teacher.
In many ways, I feel completely deplete of the resources of love. This is not to say that people haven’t loved me well, deeply, and often; in fact, the opposite is true! I lack the substance of love when I, even if just more a moment, do not see through eyes of compassion. This paucity of my own love is a good thing, though, as it demands that I depend on God to be the source of my love. I am able to love—with him and through him. It’s in the learning to receive his loving-kindness towards me that I have the fullness to share his loving-kindness with others. Love is what he’s all about. You know that, right?
His name is love.
His top 2 commandments are about love. (Love God, love others)
His decision for creating us & redeeming us is all wrapped up in this…
Because of his great love for us, our mercy-rich God made us alive together with Christ…so that, for all of eternity, God could show us the limitless riches of his grace and his loving-kindness toward us in Messiah Jesus. [Ephesians 2:4-5,7 paraphrased]
It’s killing me how many people don’t know they are loved. God went to the ends of the earth so we could have a neon-flashing-sign forever displayed in the heavens: “You are loved completely! Who you are, as you are, where you are—-you are loved! You aren’t forgotten! God knows you, sees you, and cares about you!”. How devastating for us to be so unaware of how loved we are.
How would I act differently if I really believed God’s love? I wouldn’t fear failure or rejection. I’d have no need for masks or performance. It’d be okay to just be me. That sounds great, doesn’t it? **Communal sigh of relief** I’m learning how to live that way: where fear trumps love every second of my life. And in the process of going into prayer asking God “Lord, would you please show your people how loved they are? Would you help them to believe it?”, I find that he consistently reminds me that I’m part of that group. I’m part of the world that Jesus died to save. And you are too! What happy news!
We might as well cue the Barney theme song. “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family…” May it be true God! May well all know your passionate, intentional love for each of us. May you strip away our fear, our jadedness, and our hurts with your healing balm. May we know what a good dad you are, and what a kind God! May we see you as you actually are, and be transformed by your love. May we love one another the way you love us, and be your family. Amen.
